‘Better to show things with what you do, not just talking’
that you don’t talk. You don’t explain things until we ask!’ Maybe it’s because I was born into an engineering family; I learned it’s better to show things with what you do instead of just talking.”
They say racing is like a drug. An addiction. Is that the case for Midori? Or does her dream involve more of a real-life love story?
“I’ve lost good friends in accidents. One was my fiancé, Rei Sawada. A remarkably fast rider. They are a fantastic family and still have a famous bike shop in Japan. He is the reason I have such a strong vision and that’s how I stay focused.
“Rei was very strong and faster than Daijiro Kato, but he had an accident in a GP250 race in the All-Japan Championship. He was in the lead, ahead of Kato and Shinya Nakano. He crashed, was in a coma and then died aged 20.
“He was a super nice person. He always said, ‘We have to help other people. It was hard for me to get my chance racing but I was lucky. If I become World Champion, I’ll quit while very young because I want to run a team to give the same chance to people who are very talented but with fewer opportunities. We need to give people a chance to reach the top’. A month after saying that, he had his accident.
“You can’t rest on your laurels. It has no meaning when you die – and you never know when that’s going to happen. You could either live for a long time or die tomorrow. If something happens to me, please keep running MIE Racing. I want to leave a legacy. All my guys have worked for me for a long time, both in Japan and overseas. They always tell me, ‘Big Mamma, Midori! Even if you pass away, we will carry on.’ Maybe one day I’ll give it up to some of these other passionate people. Then I’ll live in the country with a nice house and garden!”
Looking to 2023
It’s set to be an exciting season for Midori and her MIE team, as the squad expands. “We’ll have two riders in World Superbike [Eric Granado and Hafizh Syahrin] and I’m starting a new two-rider World Supersport team [Taz Mackenzie and Adam Norrodin].
“Our door is broken because I have so many riders and engineers knocking on it every day! Every single day there’s another new name! Tarran Mackenzie is one of them – he’s really talented.
“This will help us to open the gates for younger riders. World Supersport is very tough but not as tough as Superbike. From Supersport, it opens the gates to youngsters to move onto WSB or Moto2, MotoGP or whatever.
“In 70 years of the Moriwaki and Yoshimura families, of which I am the third generation, I’ve always said to my Mum and Dad, ‘We have been in motorsport for such a long time, we have to leave a legacy. We are always thinking about business, because we have to survive, but by the time we leave this world we need to have not only taken but also left something’. That is what I’m trying to do.”